Back home and catching up

Had a wonderful time in Atlanta visiting with both of my daughters and grandchildren. They are just too cute for words. Noah's vocabulary is growing but No is still his favorite word of the moment. Olivia fell in love with a particular puzzle game on my ITouch and played it every time we were together.

One of my favorite scenes was Kate laying on the floor fussing and Noah sitting beside her singing to her. As long as he would sing, she would listen and stop fussing. Only when he thought she was calmed down and would stop or walk away would the fussing start back up again. But that gentle big brother scene was just too sweet for words.

We did ChikFilA for lunch one day because the kids love the play area there. On Friday night, both daughters went to the movie and my husband and I took the oldest two to Waffle House, another favorite spot of theirs.

The big event this trip was Erin's ultrasound which revealed that she is having a baby girl. I got rather teary eyed at the thought of my daughter having a daughter. Very honored to have been able to share that moment with them. We went shopping on Friday and got her a few maternity clothes and a couple of BABY GIRL outfits. What fun!

Cookout on Saturday night for Erin's birthday. We met at Kayla's house because we had more room and they have a bigger grill. Hamburgers and all the fixins. Luke and Kayla have the Beatles version of Guitar Hero game, so we did that for a while. Finally a game that has songs from my era that I know....

Sunday morning was drizzly and cold. Drove home through Columbus and visited with my dad for a little bit before heading back home. Unpacked the car and my suitcase and now today must catch up on all the phone calls left for me while I was gone. I have a busy week ahead. But the possibility of a few new clients too.

That's always a nice thing to come home to.

I know....bad grammar.

Ice pica

For a little while now, I've had a real addiction to ice. Like if I don't get it my mouth feels dry and very ice needy. In order to save my teeth from crunching on hard ice, I've been putting it in the blender and turning it into soft snow ice. But when home, I've pretty much had a cup in my hand all day long. There have even been a few nights I've awakened and run into the kitchen to turn on my blender and grind up some fresh snow to eat.

Fortunately my husband has been out of town a lot lately. He might not have tolerated the blender going off at 3 AM.

Ice pica is a symptom of anemia. I have an instrument to test my client's hemoglobin but I didn't get a good enough sample on myself and it appeared that my hemo was sufficient. But as time went on, I noticed other symptoms of anemia.

So I dropped in on my friendly doctor friend this week and requested a CBC and a thyroid screen. There are crossover symptoms for both, so I wanted to cover my bases.

After a whole big deal about finding my vein, we finally got the labs run and later on that same day my friendly doctor texted me and told me to get my butt back to his office----post haste.

Apparently my hemoglobin was within half a point of needing a blood transfusion.

It certainly explains my fatigue of late and the fact that just getting a shower and drying off was leaving me winded. He explained that the only reason I was still standing was I have been losing red blood cells (bleeding) for such an extended period of time that my body was compensating. Now we have to determine exactly where I'm bleeding. We did an occult hemo stool specimen yesterday and it was positive. Somewhere in my digestive tract, there is slow steady bleeding going on....but where?

We are starting conservatively and since I have a strong history of GERD from my hiatal hernia we are going to assume for a few weeks that that is the source. Prilosec and prescription iron for two weeks, then another series of tests to see if my hemoglobin has recovered and if there is still blood in the digestive tract.

Pray that it is something this simple and doesn't require more (expensive) testing. Without insurance right now and hubby working sporadically, this is not a good time to have to run medical tests.

I'll keep you posted. In the mean time, I'm off to Atlanta to get grandchildren sugar, visit with my two daughters and find out what my next grandchild's gender will be. Also get to celebrate my oldest daughter's birthday. Lovely week ahead!

Taking advantage of the break

It doesn't happen very often. A week or so of time when I'm not "on call" for someone waiting on a baby. So when it does happen, I want to kick up my heels and do things I can't normally do....like see my grandchildren!

Or take Benedryl before going to bed to help me sleep all night long and know that the phone will not be ringing and calling me out during the night to drive somewhere while still under the influence of something that makes me very drowsy.

Or going to a movie and not constantly checking out my cell phone to see if one of my client's has called.

So, I have to teach my childbirth class on Monday night and attend my photography class on Tuesday night, but on Wednesday, I'm heading north to visit three grandchildren and two daughters and son-in-laws that I don't get to see nearly enough.

Can't wait!

A new experience

Over the weekend, my little chihuahua, Bennett, jumped down from the chair in the living room that he tends to occupy and somehow he just hit the floor awkwardly and injured his leg. It did not appear to be broken so I decided to just observe him over the weekend, hoping to see improvement. Maybe it was just a bad sprain.

So he refused food the first 24 hours, and limped about on 3 feet. Yelped if I picked him up and somehow managed to bump his little injured leg (right rear). So on Monday when it did not appear to be making improvement, I decided to take him by the vet's office and let them diagnose.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that his little kneecap had been displaced and could not be recentered and the treatment was surgery!

So this morning, my little buddy is having his little knee operated on. Apparently this is a defect found more frequently in chihuahuas and the surgery has an excellent track record of fixing the situation permanently.

But my day is going to be busy! I am driving this morning back to Valdosta to attend the Jewish bris ceremony for the baby that arrived by cesarean last week. I've never attended a bris before. Generally, I support parents leaving their little boys intact, but I realize that in Jewish families, thousands of years of tradition are hard to depart from. So I am going to attend and learn from the ceremony where this little boy will officially receive his name and forever be separated from his foreskin.

Then.....my photography class is meeting at our instructor's studio this evening and we are supposed to bring subjects to photograph. I asked my two mommies that attended my childbirth class last night if they would like to have maternity photos taken and they both agreed. So I taking pics of baby bellies tonight! Hoping to get some good ones!

Yet another reason....

I know that when they are needed, hospitals are a great gift. But many times, in the area of birth and newborn parenting, they thwart all that is natural and good.

Case in point....my doula client was coerced into a cesarean yesterday. At her prenatal on Monday, they suddenly discovered that she had an unusual pubic bone and told her the baby would never be able to get past this bone. Suspiciously, this client had a birth plan and had insisted she be able to go into labor naturally and not be induced and she was getting close to 41 weeks. It's amazing no one discovered this abnormality until now. I still am convinced that if she didn't labor in bed, and did not give birth in the traditional lithotomy position, she would have been able to birth vaginally just fine.

So, I went over and held her hand before she went into surgery and stayed in order to help her get the baby to latch that first time. She was in recovery for an hour and back in her room for an hour and a half before they finally "allowed" her to see and be with her baby for the first time. By then, her spinal had worn off and she had requested medications which made it difficult for her to get into a good position for breastfeeding and to stay alert herself. And also by then, her baby had been separated from her and had past his prime alert time and had gone into that deep recovery sleep that newborns do soon after birth. Nothing would persuade him to be interested in nursing at that point. The client's mother was in town, but had left the hospital to take care of a flat time problem with the client's car and I couldn't stay much longer and the hospital would not allow the mother to keep her own baby in the room by herself without another adult present, so I stayed long enough for the mom to at least get to spend a good hour with her child for the first time, practice some skin to skin, unwrap her baby and get to see him all over for the first time, etc. I felt bad, because my leaving meant she had to send the baby back to the nursery.

They didn't seem to care that they had kept mother/baby separated for too long for breastfeeding and for that first latch to occur. Not a single nurse or person on that floor was helpful or stayed within guidelines to make sure that breastfeeding was successful. The bonding issue wasn't uppermost in their minds.

It was SUCH an unnatural state. Baby had gazillion ID bands on him, plus a security alarm attached to an ankle. Mother had matching bands. If I had not been there, she would not have even been allowed to see her baby until much later in the day when her mother returned.

I sent a good friend to see her yesterday afternoon who is a lactation educator and they had no success either. Nursery was pressuring her to give the baby formula since it had been 12 hours with no nursing. Baby is trying to shake off his cesarean birth and mom is not doing well on her pain meds.

It's a setup for breastfeeding failure. One that medicine made, all by itself.

Thanks.

Waiting...

Story of my life....

I have a doula client that is slightly past her due date so maybe she will go into labor soon.

Not tonight though! (I hope)

My childbirth class at the technical college did not have enough participants to offer it this semester. They had already printed up their semester catalog by the time I approached them with the idea so it did not get promoted like we would have wanted. But I did have three couples that wanted to take the class. Their due dates won't wait for next semester, so I am teaching them back at home....at least two of them. The other couple I've agreed to teach in their home since his work schedule as an EMT doesn't allow for attendance on Monday nights.

So tonight, I will teach two couples the 6 weeks course and beginning next Saturday I will start the first of two marathon classes for the other couple.

I'm not used to spending this much time without meaningful things to do, places to go, appointments to attend to. Several days lately I've had no contact with the outside world and have just stayed in my pajamas all day, not showering, not putting in my contact lenses and just getting school work done on the computer, or working on my childbirth class handouts.

I'm a slouch.

Today my dad is having a pacemaker installed. He lives in Columbus and I would really have liked to be up there for him but couldn't leave because of the doula client and my class tonight. He is not in the best of health....several previous heart attacks, bypass surgeries, diabetes, poor peripheral circulation, previous brush with prostate cancer. I don't really know how much longer he will be around. We have never been particularly close but I keep trying to make that connection that never quite happens.

Off to shower. I will actually see real people today.

Another quiet week

If it gets any more quiet around here, I might go crazy!

I do have someone dropping by this afternoon to check out a book. Yay, another human being.

I have a prenatal on Thursday and my breastfeeding support group on Friday morning. I have a new mom who is going to try to come and she's successfully nursing twins. That should be fun.

I have a doula client who is due and I'm on call for her labor, whenever that occurs.

My childbirth class at the technical college did not have enough people to sign up to offer the class. So if they don't get anyone by Wednesday, that class will have to be taught at my house. So far only one couple has signed up. My house is just not conducive for the classes and the technology it needs to do my presentations on an overhead projector. I have no place to put up the screen here. If it's only one couple, I may just do their class for them at their house and just show the presentation on my laptop at their table or something. Very lackluster if you ask me.

Next week, I am taking a course in photography at the tech school. I think the class is 4 weeks and it will hopefully teach me to get the best out of my nice Canon digital camera.

It's about to be November! Can you believe it?